I won’t go into the long of it, but the short version is, i and hubby and most were under the impression this was a near-impossible to impossible thing to accomplish, made more so simply because it just kept not happening. So, after many years, and many hiccups, surprise for me and my family, i get to be a mommy come this July! Whoo!

Unfortunately, the fun part of this is we STILL have not moved, and well, we really want to before kiddo arrives. So, we’re twiddling our thumbs while i ride out the weirdness of pregnancy, and hope that things will lay out for the best.

What this means for writing:

Whelp, i’ve been down quite a bit because growing a human is hard, BUT I’ve managed a lot of quality over quantity, and have actually finished large portions of WW:U3, to the point where i’m only four scenes(one chapter, three branches) away from starting NEW chapters, which honestly I haven’t done in like, two years. And if we can manage to move and find a house with a nice mother in law suite for my mom, i’ll have a much more structured home-life and extra hands to watch kiddo while a work. (and a shorter, less stressful commute and less stressful money situation would overall add to writing harmony.) Tazu Saga 3 is still with my publisher over at Red Adept, and because they’ve gotten so much bigger over the years the wait times are simply longer to get into editing at then publication. Luckily, i’ve got 85k written for the Tazu Saga 4 already done, and i’m just waiting for what the editors want to do to #3 before finishing it. So, basically as soon as content edit is done there, i’ve got maybe 20-40k words to do and then #4 will get submitted.

Until then, i’m working while i can, doing what i can on WW:U3. here’s the overall update since May last year (updates in bold):

(to give an idea, the original wc for this one section– one branch on a two pronged chapter with 3 distinct options– was only 30K in word count in May. i finished it this week for a total of 58,236k words. This was super complicated and took me most of the time i’ve been working just to untangle it.)

As you can see, i’ve mostly been untangling messes in the Chapter 5 plan B half of the two-plan plot-line. It’s a pivotal section, that, i’m not going to lie, has been the source of much angst over the past few years, but now that is finally sorted, i can move forward with the confidence that i won’t have a major plot hole issue if the reader doesn’t choose certain choices. I honestly can’t even talk about the amount of dead words that were deleted and rewritten in that one section, it was nightmarish, and im glad it’s done. it’s a relief it’s done.

I know I’ve been quiet, there’s been a lot of life drama, and things are moving at a crawl on all ends. But here’s a preview of a scene for WW:U3 as another thank you for your patience. Enjoy!

The three of you stop by Umbrave’s room to collect the game, then find a table at the back of one of the common rooms to set it up. The box it’s in is long and wooden, with the name Tower of Spirit wood-burned across the top. Once he opens it and starts taking things out, you see it looks rather complex, with a game board, a multitude of little tile pieces, and a variety of cards.

“Have you ever played this before, Umbrave?” you ask, admiring a little hexagon shaped tile with a forest painted on one side.

“Yes, I think this is one we played last summer when I went home for a stint.” Examining the little book with the instructions, he nods. “I only played it a few times, but I remember the basics. It’s at its heart a cooperative game, where the players work together to gather resources and build a little society– and we win when we complete this monument thing in the face of natural disasters that can happen and such. However, it’s interesting in the fact that you can play with one of the players pretending to be a good guy, but in reality, they’re playing as a ‘Red follower’.”

Kess’s eyebrows arch up. “Really? One of us would choose to be evil in the game?”

“Well, it’d be random, as we’d pick player cards to decide it. We don’t have to, though. But if we do, the player who gets the ‘Red follower’ card can then play along, pretending to help, but secretly sabotaging the other players’ efforts to build the monument. The other players can then try to weed him out, or just try to build it despite him. We win when the monument is built, but the Red follower wins if they stop us before the last turn, or if they managed to sneak in the sabotage card into the monument without the other players noticing.” He grins. “I think we should play with the Red follower. It’ll be more fun.”

Kess wrinkles her nose. “I don’t know, Umbrave. I’m not sure I want to play a game where I’m trying to backstab my friends.”

“It’s a game, Kess– the point is to win whether you’re pretending to be evil or not.” He shrugs. “What about you, Rei? You tie break it: play with the Red follower card or no?”

So, I’ve been quiet for a while. This is two parted, the first being my sweet doggo feel ill and i was taking care of her for three weeks until she finally passed. I had her for 12 and a half years and she was dearly beloved. Her loss has hit me rather hard, as she’d been there for me through some of the darkest times of my life, and this was also the first time i was solely responsible for making the choices about the life and death of a pet. She was really awesome and chill and just good, in a way that was exceptional for her breed, a Chow-Chow, whose name literally means ‘bite-bite’ lol. But not my girl. The only one she ever bit was a stranger who decided to get in my face in a very threatening way and he immediately regretted it. To everyone else she was playful and fluffy and darling. I miss her.

The second hiccup in the mix is honestly more time-consuming, and that’s the final push to finish remodeling my mother’s home so she can sell it, and we as a family can buy a new home together with a mother in law suite. I’m hoping we can do this relatively quickly and find a home closer to my work, which would in turn spare me a ton of driving in a day.

But until then i’m going to be MIA for a bit, so love, laugh read and enjoy life in the meanwhile. ❤

So, there’s been a lot going on in the world and it’s stressing me out, so i decided to calm myself by writing you out a little bit of lore on the judicial systems of the Tazu Nation and Clan Lands (as these are the more developed systems in the world, though i’ve got info on all of them). These are brief explanations, but if you have any additional questions or thoughts, feel free to share ’em and i might answer or amend them late. enjoy!

Tazu Nation:

The Tazu Nation follows a matriarchal feudal system, with a few variants with regards to how the King’s and Queen’s offices function with each other. Because it a matriarchal system, the ruling heads of each office are traditionally brother and sister– with occasional variants for cousins and the like, though it is never a husband and wife dynamic. The functions of the whole government are divided between them– the Queen’s office being responsible to the home-base related aspects, such as the distribution of land, as land is typically passed onto women in families, while liquid capital is passed onto males. All aspects of government fall into these traditional binaries, for example the collection of taxes is handled by the King’s office, while the distribution of funds is then determined by the Queen’s office. Foreign affairs on a global scale are dealt with by the King’s office, while actual trade rites fall to the Queen’s office, and so on to all portions of governance. This hand-in hand approach applies also to the lower noble families, with each tier on the feudal system pyramid following the same model.

The legal system of the Tazu Nation follows the same hand-in-hand model, with the King’s office holding dominion over criminal law and legalities, and the Queen’s office holding dominion over civil laws and disputes. For complex cases that combine these two, both the King’s office and the Queen’s office would oversee the trial. This is not to say the King or Queen themselves would try every single case of theft or destruction of property to come into the system– each Lord and Lady of a family would have similar, smaller courts in their own territories that would function the same, with the official King and Queen’s laws to work from as the standard though with some room for interpretation by individual Lords and Ladies. However, as it is with the feudal system’s tiered arrangement, where there a dispute between lesser lord or ladies, the high lord or lady will oversee their trial, and so on upwards until they reach the King or Queen’s authority– theirs is considered the final word on the matter. Group or large scale crimes and disputes will also climb to reach the actual king and queen’s level of the system if they cover multiple provinces or have a large number of complainants/victims, or have a national impact/precedence to be set.

Clan Lands:

The Clan Lands government has had many incarnations over the years, given it has the longest history out of all the nations, varying from a feudal system to a republic, depending on the timeline. The only consistent factor, however, has been the judicial system, which has remained steady for the majority of it’s history despite the governmental changes. This is made possible by the fact that from the second millennia onwards the entire court system is run by one Clanswoman, the Original Erin Manna of the Mannachi clan. Known for her extensive precognitive powers and her rigid lawful neutrality, Erin Manna sits as the sole judge of the High Court, the only court and person capable of proceeding over even an emperor should the need arise. Within her system, she acts autonomously from the rest of the government, appointing judges from lesser to higher courts all across the country. This works solely due to her ageless nature, unquestionable power over the majority of Clan, as well as her stanch adherence to the law– managing to remain unbiased in her interpretation of the laws created by the government, and often returning (though rarely outright rejecting) laws with amendments for the government to consider before officially passing to ensure the proper spirit of the law is being upheld, and to check for moral ambiguity. While this has often made her arguably more powerful than the actual Clan Lands government, she has always also maintained a distance, allowing for the governing system to move and act on its own to the letter of the law.

Well, actually, it’s strep throat, but either way, i’ve been down for two weeks of my break with sickness, and i’m just pretty much useless. It’s a shame, because i really wanted to spend the time writing and working on projects and now i’m just laying here dizzy and sick and miserable.

So coming off over 50k words in WW:U3 being written in April and May, i’ve been taking a break in June, partially because it’s good for me and partially because it’s just been really stressful so far this month. I won’t go into details but this time of year i’m always much busier at my normal teaching job what with the art show, the upswing in the craft fair season and jewelry making, and additional life drama has been abounding (we might be moving again soon-ish– yay?). I’ve been reading a lot to keep sane, and that’s all i can brain on my downtime. (That and cuddling pusheens. Give me all the pusheens.)

Aside from that, i’ve loaded the entirety of WW:U thats done so far into a massive omnibus thats i’ve been using to track plot holes and stat levels; it’s been educational and i’ll be fiddling with it for a while before i finish WW:U3.

For those still wondering about when things will come out…i have no idea. My excessively long Tazu book3 is sitting in the editing que of my ever-growing publisher, and when i am told it’s going into copy-editing, i’ll let you all know. lol As far as WW:U3, i’m still plugging along. It’s a big one, even with me trimming things just so it shall be DONE. I’ve also been taking breaks on it to streamline the stats system for future WW universe CoGs and toy with other ideas, because i can really only stare at it for so long. (six weeks straight seems to be my limit lol) Chances are i’ll pick things up again at the end of June, then break for the four weeks of summer camp, then back to it in Aug for three weeks straight unless the move thing happens. Then gods only know.

SO i spent my birthday being sick and dragged to doctors offices and trying not to die, but today i actually felt human so i finished the Kess recruitment chapter. Here’s the overall progress updates for WW:U3 since Jan:

So i’m actually plugging away nicely this year, as opposed to last year where i had thrown my back and all that drama. DX I finished the Umbrave recruitment chapter, adding around 8500 words total. (freaking duelists DX) Kess’s recruitment chapter now has gotten from 6200 words up to over 15k, and still climbing. I’m hopeful i’ll finish it soon ans well, and manage to make my 30k goal for April. Also going to do my best to keep the momentum up and try to live up to my 1k a day schedule– we’ll see.

So anyways, i’m alive, i’m working and i’m doing good. Also the weather is insane. Like, really where is spring?

The Way of History dictates that we are what we were, and that the past holds as many lessons within its depths as the present. Feator is always an older man dressed in brown monk’s robes with silver dusted hair, a young face and deep bronze eyes. His domain covers administrators, record keepers and anyone else who must know about the past in order to make present changes. He is also the record-keeper of all souls, detailing the choices made and lessons learned of everyone who has ever existed– literally the accountant for Karma itself.

His Aspect: Feator’s Aspect typically incarnates as a gender fluid, or Pure Ishim person, and represents the current incarnation of a soul, the ever-consistently changing moment of the ‘now’– the present, the eternal moment wherein all of Spirit exists in the same time. All Precognition supposedly flows from ish, and ishir Ability when Incarnated is unmatched in this.

Stones and other symbols: Picture jasper.

Followers of Feator: Focusing deeply upon past lives and past life contracts; they are the keepers of memory itself, and the decoders of the precious life-ladders. They are also the keepers of lineages, records, and all number of bureaucratic society, calling on his Aspect to always be in constant ‘in the now’ in order to properly know ‘what has been’.

Path of the dan’trai or ‘karma-keeper’: Often misunderstood and almost always underestimated, this particular follower of Fetor has dedicated their life to the pursuit of the past- specifically their own past lives. While this may on the surface seem to be a leisurely pursuit, the end goal (and ultimate aim of each follower) can result in a person with experiences and skills from many previous incarnations. Imagine a ka’melie-fire empathic- houlen combination who has also studied history and the path of the mei, for example. They lend themselves to be terribly powerful if their current bodies have the capacity to back-up their previous memories.

Path of the man’trai: The same as stated above, but this particular path of Feator uses their abilities to pull-out the past lives’ memories and skills of others. Though their effects are mostly only for a fleeting few minutes, this particular path is the only one of Feator’s Walkers that is made to consistently travel with other Walkers for the purposes of combat.

What Featorians think of followers of:

Montage: They are the epitome of Way Walkers, the masters of Spirit. Let no man debate it.

Rhean: So many ‘empty spaces’ and missing pages in this Way. Either they are hiding something, or want some deep air of mystery to make themselves feel more special. Time will tell.

Ulic: We are similar in method, but differ in practice.

Rosin: Such contempt for those who decide how you’ll be remembered- perhaps this is why you have such an unfavorable light in the texts.

Desmoulein: We help them keep medical records, and they know how to learn from what has come before. Excellent persons to sit and talk with at the end of the day.

Angani: They do not like change, though they’d learn from us that change is the only constant. If they were more flexible, they’d be better liked, but I do not think they are in their Way to make friends. Hum, at least they are pleasant to us; perhaps this is why they are still around.

Beleskie: A little wild for most of us, but likeable enough. Great events have had their seeds sown in the un-scripted pillow-talk that is their domain. They remind us of the mortal aspect of events.

Kubesh: If they’d just ask, we’d be able to teach them so much. Yet, they don’t. Oh well.

Turin: They are too concerned with what’s coming to bother with what’s passed before.

Bree: They weave some rhythm into history with their ballads and depictions of historic events. Good for them.

Red: Its read books, not burn them.

Balori sect: This could go very badly or very well. Like so many things before them. We’ll see if they’re worth recording.

I’m going to start writing up some of these Lore posts, wherein I’ll share some tidbit about the world, or some aspect of Way Walkers. I’ll also draw from forum posts and fb, so any questions you have, feel free to post and I’ll place the answers in a special lore post for all to see. 🙂

Today we have some ruminations from the Aspect of Rhean, Ra’vien. While he is Protection, she is Punishment– deliverer of divine karmic justice. Culturally, she is terrifying. Taking the form of a phoenix whose body is made of black smoke and whose core burns as a blue-white star, she literally murders evil things. (and people)

And yet, she is not vengeance. This is an excerpt from a text written during her second Incarnation which better explains the difference between her and the wickedness that is the Red:

Some call me twisted, wicked, claiming my hands are drenched only in the dark stain of vengeance; this is untrue. I am not the spirit of vengeance– but karmic justice. This is removed even, from mortal justice, made by mortal lives and flawed in it’s own right. Mine is Higher, mine is truer. When I punish it is evil, the true evil, that no Ishim can escape. Thus follows the inevitable question: how can anyone truly define evil? There are always circumstances– does the poor man deserve to lose his hand if he steals to feed his family? Does the murder who killed to save a life deserve to be hunted down and murdered in turn by another for the first crime? And on and on it goes. But i say it is simple– with less moral quandary than Ishim add into it. Evil is obvious– Ishim might wrap it up, pretend it is areas of gray and without absolute, but this is untrue. Identifying evil is as simple as the answer to a simple question: what does one do, when one discovers they are wrong? Do they dig in, piling previous belief upon previous belief atop their heads until buried under a pile of falsehoods? Or do they rise– accept the truth of the harm caused, and do what is needed to make it right? There are those of course caught in the middle, dancing back and forth between philosophies– and these do not receive my judgement until decided. But for those who do not repent in their hearts and with their actions– fear me. For I am coming.